[Hook]
And maybe you'll never know
And maybe you'll never know
And maybe you'll never know

More on Genius

Calum Scott Breaks Down "What I Miss Most" On Genius' Series 'Verified'

What have the artists said about the song?

“What I Miss Most” is my nostalgia song. It’s a complete tribute to my hometown. The crest for my city is three golden crowns on top of each other, so when I say, “Under three crowns when I’m far away,” I’m trying to basically say I’m proud of Hull, where I’m from. I’m always gonna have my roots and no matter where I go, I’m always gonna have that – almost like those three crowns travel with me. I’m proud to wear that badge and be from where I’m from, and I kind of like to shout that wherever I go. It’s the same with “quarter of million stories pass you by.” I was basically saying how I get on a train and go back to London or the airport, and I would look out the [window] and see my hometown go by. The population of Hull is about a quarter of a million, so I’ve tried to work in some clever lyrics to specifically pay homage.

What inspired this song?

My inspiration for “What I Miss Most” was simply missing home. I’m a complete family guy. I love my family. I love my friends. I’ve lived and been raised in my hometown of Hull for the last 27 years, so home is Hull. Whilst I was writing this album, I was missing home a lot. I’d been away from home longer than I ever had before, and it was definitely on my mind. And the thing with my songwriting is that I write from the heart, I write from what’s troubling me. Or what’s making happy, I don’t just write sad songs.

But “What I Miss Most” was a true tribute, I think, to nostalgia, to home, but I also write in there about how maybe it wasn’t born of skin and bone, it wasn’t born of steel and stone. So it’s almost like it’s not anything in specific. It’s not the house I grew up in, or my mom, or my dad. Of course, I miss these guys, but it’s more just my hometown, and home is where the heart is.

What's it like where Calum grew up?

My hometown is not a big city. The population is about a quarter of a million people. It’s not a big city by any stretch. It’s not even a through city; it’s not a city that people would go through to get somewhere else. It’s on the coast, and it’s kind of forgotten a little bit about.

But it’s home. And for me that’s special. It’s where all my friends are. It’s where I went to school. It’s where I grew up. It’s where I got my first job, and I thought my life would probably just be in Hull. So to be writing this album, and to writing this song in particular, and to look back, was quite surreal.

But nothing special about it. I think one of the main things we’ve got from there is that we have this thing called a patty, which is potatoes, onion, and sage all mashed together in a patty-style that’s deep fried. I think that’s probably the only thing that we have there that you can’t find anywhere else.

How did the song come together?

All of my songs, I’m there for the writing. I’ve never taken a song from somebody else to include on my album, because I feel like this album needed to be a true representation of me as an artist, and as a person. So apart from the covers on the album, everything was written by me and my co-writers. So when I went to Sweden, we sat down, we started sketching the ideas for the song. Getting lyrics together, getting a basic demo together, and I think we’d written a verse and a chorus. I came away from Sweden, sent it to my management and my label, and said, “You know, we’ve got a cool vibe here. I would love to go back and finish it.” And they were kind of like, “Yeah, yeah this is cool.” But I wrote 70 songs for the album. So they kind of got put in the catalog, and we’ll kinda review it towards the end of the album process.

It wasn’t until afterwards that my A&R had asked somebody to put a beat behind it, and instantly it just brought a new life to the song. It became less of a ballad, and more of a sort of mid-tempo anthem. So I ended up going back to Sweden, finishing the bridge and the ending. And we recorded and produced it there and then in Sweden. It’s the only other place outside of the UK and America where I wrote and recorded a song. So it’s actually quite special.

And it actually comes full circle, by the fact that “Dancing On My Own,” which is the song I covered by Robyn, that got me to where I’m at, was born in Sweden as well. So it kinda brings everything in a beautiful full circle.